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My daughter (21 yr old) had her takedown surgery 11 days ago. She is still in considerable pain, needing pain meds. Some pain is from her incision, some from "inside." I've read so many different experiences. I'm wondering how long we can expect this pain to last. 1 month? 3 months? 6 months? We see the pain management team this week, but I'm not certain how much experience they have dealing with this particular surgery. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

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When my son had his take down he was on meds for months.  When he had his first surgery , which was the beginning of June, 2014, he was on heavy stuff until the end of July.  take down was the beginning of September, and was on pain medication forever because we had a lot of complications.  Everytime he tried to get off, the pain was too much for him to handle.  Then in December they found some of the problems and still needed the pain meds.  He was on them until end of April this year.  Everyone is different.  Our doctors told us not to worry about addiction.  That if you need it, take it.  Deal with the pain and worry about the other stuff later.  We had our primary and a pain management doctor help him get off the stuff and he did it in about 5 weeks.  When she is ready to get off, she will know it.  She will be taking less and less.  But I would give it at least a month, six weeks at least.  Good luck!

 

I think it varies person to person. I quit all pain meds in the hospital after developing an ileus, at least 5 days before discharge, after my first surgery. Never used any pain meds after takedown. But I think I have a weird pain tolerance.

A pain management team is specialized to deal with all sorts of pain. I don't think it'll matter specifically if they do or don't do work often with this particular surgery. It's still post op pain.
Last edited by rachelraven

The opioid problem in the US is extreme and my personal opinion is that it has many doctors erring on the side of caution.

My husbands surgeon wasn't going to continue the pain med after the second refill of thirty tabs Percocet. We had a heart-to-heart with his surgeon explaining there are times he's in tears and can barely move. We also explained that he was now actually only taking a half tab two to three times a day (far under the prescribed one tab every four to six hours).  Because of this (and the fact that we have a medical professional in the family that is helping me keep an eye on the usage) we were able to come to an agreement to continue with pain med on an "as needed" basis within reason, it was also suggested we try flipping to Codeine as it has had a binding effect on other patients.

Everyone is different, as is their tolerance to pain, some folks need the pain med longer than others. My rule of thumb has been to keep a log of what he's taking and when. I've actually kept them in a file going back to the day he got home from the hospital after J-Pouch construction and refer back to them now and again.

Keep faith, it will get better...slowly.

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